Much to the chagrin and audible objections of the hunters present there, Julian snapped his fingers and motioned for the release of the captured vampires.
By the end of the day, Vivienne, Derek and I had a meeting with Arron, set the next day.
Before the meeting, I geared myself up for what would be asked of me. I was willing to pay any price to get my daughter back. I just had to trust that Derek and Vivienne—our family—were willing to do the same.
Chapter 37: Derek
When Vivienne stepped into the bedroom provided for me at hunters headquarters, I was in the middle of a workout, having already done more push-ups than I cared to count. Sweaty and not having yet taken a shower, I was the farthest thing from presentable, but as I stood to face my sister, she stared at me like I was the most magnificent thing she’d ever laid eyes on.
“What?” I asked when her stares were beginning to make me uncomfortable.
Her mouth opened but all she did was inhale. Tears began to brim her eyes.
“Vivienne, what is it?” Despite the fact that I was sweaty, I approached her and pulled her into my arms. “What’s going on?”
“You’re human,” came her hoarse whisper. “Derek, you’re human.”
“Um, yes. We found a cure, remember? I was already human when I left The Shade with Sofia.” Even as I said my wife’s name, pain gripped my heart. I couldn’t bear the idea that she wasn’t with me. It had been months since I was taken from The Shade. Does she think that I abandoned her? She wouldn’t think that, would she? She knows me better than that.
Vivienne had a knack of reading my mind, so I wasn’t too surprised when she said, “I’m sure she understands, Derek. Sofia knows you more than any of us do. She saw goodness in you when the rest of us saw only darkness.”
I remembered Sofia’s kisses while we were in the darkness of that dungeon. “Vivienne, she’s pregnant. Sofia’s pregnant.”
“I know.” Vivienne nodded as she pulled away from me. She squeezed my arm. “We’re going to get her back, Derek. Her and your child. Everything’s going to be all right.”
From the moment I’d woken up, I’d been consumed by the desperation to have my wife back in my arms. I was married to the love of my life. I was supposed to wake up in the morning and find her in my arms, beautiful and radiant like she always was, but lately the only memory I had of her was the dream I always had—blood dripping from her mouth, poised to kill. The image haunted me. I found myself spilling out the words to my sister, grateful for a confidante.
Vivienne said the same reassurances I kept telling myself, but still, it didn’t seem enough.
“You’ve made it through so much already, Derek. Both of you can still make it through this.”
“How? We don’t even know where The Blood Keep is.”
“I think Corrine knows. Wasn’t it the witches who got you out of The Blood Keep to begin with?”
Hope surged within me. Still, an unshakable dread had settled over me. “What if she’s already given birth? What are they going to do to our child? What are they going to do to her? Vivienne, what if…”
“Stop tormenting yourself, Derek. You’re having a child! There was a time in your life when you never even imagined that you could ever fall in love, much less sire a child, and now you have that. Sofia is resilient and strong. You know that. Forget the dreams.”
“How can you say that? You’re the Seer of The Shade. You live by the dreams and visions that you see.”
“And I’ve also seen many die by them. Maybe my visions have been accurate because I allowed them to be. All the war and bloodshed at The Shade, it all happened. I saw it beforehand, all that darkness. What I didn’t see was all the light. I didn’t see how Sofia would influence you to light. I didn’t see the cure. I didn’t see myself falling in love with Xavier. I am a seer, yes, but I am also so blind to many things.”
I had to interrupt. “You and Xavier? Finally?”
A strange mixture of delight and sadness crossed her lovely countenance. “You knew?”
“Of course I did.”
“And now he’s a vessel, used by the Elders for whatever purposes they wish.” Her voice broke and she began sobbing.
I had no idea what to do. I wasn’t used to seeing Vivienne break down, so I just ran my hand across her back, like I did to Sofia whenever she seemed down. Vivienne sobbed into my chest for a couple of minutes before getting a hold of herself.
“We’re going to get Xavier back,” I promised her. “We’re going to find a way.” For centuries, my twin had been fighting for me to fulfill my destiny. She’d never asked for anything in return. Now, she was about to lose the love of her life. I wasn’t about to let that happen.
“You’re going to help me, aren’t you?” she asked, almost as if she wasn’t certain if I would bother.
I cupped her face between my palms. “Of course I will. You know I will. We’re going to find a way to save all of them—Sofia, Xavier, Liana, Yuri and Ashley. They’re our family. We are family.”
There were so few of us left surviving. Never had I said words regarding the men and women loyal to me with as much conviction as I did then.
That was all it took for Vivienne to calm down. A promise from me that everything was going to be all right.
Once she gathered herself together, she gave me a curt nod, and looked me straight in the eye, “That’s it then, Derek. Forget those ugly nightmares you have of Sofia.”
My heart sank. “How can I? My dreams have a way of coming true.”
“Whatever we see in dreams or visions, those images are merely part of a story—and they are rarely the end of the story. Should your nightmare of Sofia come true, you can trust that it’s only a snippet of what is to come. If there’s anything I’ve learned watching you and Sofia blossom into the couple that you have become, it’s that we hold our fate in our hands. We always have a choice. Don’t settle for less than the future that you dream of with her.”
I couldn’t help but smile inwardly at the words my sister expressed. “Thank you.” I walked away from her and toward the phone installed on my bedside table. I dialed a number that had been etched in my head since Sofia and I had visited those homes in California. “Monica Andrews, please?”
A couple of minutes of conversation and I had just agreed to buy my first house. Not because I wanted to abandon The Shade, but because the house, to me, had become a symbol of the family I wanted with Sofia. That house—and seeing my wife and children live and grow up inside of it—was a future that I had always dreamed of.